Quote: I choose a lazy person to do a hard job (Attributed to Bill Gates) (Congressional Record Help Request)

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Tue Feb 11 22:39:51 UTC 2014


The following statement in various forms has been attributed to tech
titan Bill Gates:

[Begin excerpt]
I choose a lazy person to do a hard job because a lazy person will
find an easy way to do it.
[End excerpt]

I've been asked to investigate this saying. Similar statements have
been ascribed to Walter Chrysler the founder of Chrysler Corporation
and others.

I hypothesize that the quotation was derived from the following short
news item from 1947.

[ref] 1947 February 1, Omaha World Herald, "To Solve Hard Problem,
Give It to 'Lazy Man'" (CTPS News Service), Quote Page 1, Column 2,
Omaha, Nebraska. (NewspaperArchive)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
To Solve Hard Problem, Give It to 'Lazy Man'

A tip on how to solve difficult production problems was given the
Senate Labor Committee Friday by Clarence E. Bleicher, president of
the Chrysler Corporation's De Soto division.

"When I have a tough job in the plant and can't find an easy way to do
it," Mr. Bleicher said, "I have a lazy man put on it. He'll find an
easy way to do it in 10 days. Then we adopt that method."
[End excerpt]

You can help trace this quotation if you are willing and if you have
access to a database of the Congressional Record such as the one
provided by ProQuest. It is possible that the testimony by Clarence E.
Bleicher was placed into the Congressional Record.

If you find a match please send me the small PDF with the matching
text (or jpeg screen shots). I am trying to create a complete and
accurate citation. Hence, data such as (1) title of the hearing (2)
name of the committee (3) date of the testimony (4) name of the
speaker (should be Bleicher) etcetera are important.

If you look and do not find a match please let me know.

With appreciation,
Garson

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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